AHA-174x Family Common Questions and Answers Doc. #39120 Q. Why does my AHA-174x board always come up in the configuration as being in Standard Mode, and what is the difference between Standard Mode and Enhanced Mode? A. The default standard mode is the most compatible mode. Standard mode requires IRQ, DMA and I/O port definitions by the installer. Only 4 AHA-174x host adapters can be used if all are in standard mode because of the number of available DMA channels for use in this mode. Enhanced mode allows the installer the luxury of not having to worry about the DMA, IRQ and I/O address. This is all taken care of by the EISA motherboard. Enhanced mode also is the only mode that supports fast SCSI (up to 10 MB/second). Up to 4 gigabyte of RAM is supported in enhanced mode, with up to 12 host adapters being allowed, with the limit imposed by the number of EISA slots. Both standard and enhanced modes support 32-bit addressing. Q. I'm trying to install the AHA-174x. After I run the EISA configuration utility and reboot, I get an "EISA configuration slot mismatch" or "board not found in slot x" error message. A. This error is caused by the fact that your board is not completely seated in the slot. You can verify this by booting to a floppy diskette, and running the DOS debug command. After typing debug you will receive the debug prompt (a dash). Then type "i (space)Xc80" where "X" is the slot where your board is physically installed. If a "04" is returned, the board is correctly seated and the problem lies elsewhere. If "FF" is returned, the board needs to be pushed down further. Power down your system before re-seating your board. Q. Why can't I configure a AHA-174x in Enhanced Mode in my EISA Computer? I get the error: "Unable to initialize Host Adapter" or the system hangs after the Adaptec BIOS scans the SCSI devices. A. These errors are usually limited to motherboards which do not support LEVEL INT triggering. These chip sets, such as the Hint and SIS, require a few modifications be made to the host adapter’s EISA configuration (.CFG) file. Make the following changes to the !ADP000X.CFG file beginning at line 117: CHOICE = "Enhanced Mode" FREE INT=IOPORT(1) LOC (7 6 2 1 0) 10000B LINK IRQ=11|12|10|15|14|9 SHARE = "AHA-1740" ----> Change to: SHARE = NO TRIGGER = LEVEL -------> Change to: TRIGGER = EDGE INIT=IOPORT93) LOC(4 3 2 1 0) 10010B | 10011B | 10001B | 1010B | 10101B | 10000B ----> Change first zero in each binary number to a one. Example: 10010B = 11010B Another option is to download the latest CFG file for this card, (ASWC174.EXE). Reconfigure the card with new CFG file & select edge triggered IRQ. Q. I have an AHA-1742A with the greater than a gigabyte BIOS and my system doesn't see the hard drive or just hangs when I run Novell's SERVER program. What is the problem? A. The greater than a gigabyte BIOS is a DOS solution. Netware 386 has greater than a gigabyte support built in. Disable greater than a gigabyte support with the EISA configuration utility. Q. Where can I get the driver for the AHA-174x enhanced mode for SCO UNIX v3.2.4 or ODT v2.0? A. All host adapter drivers are embedded for SCO UNIX v3.2.4 and ODT v2.0. Both standard and enhanced modes of the AHA-174x are fully supported. Q. If I have already installed the AHA-174x in standard mode under SCO UNIX v3.2.4 or ODT v2.0, how can I configure the AHA-174x to enhanced mode without reloading the operating system? A. Follow these five steps: 1. Use the VI editor to edit the file: /etc/conf/sdevice.d/ad. Change Y to N to disable the standard mode driver, (named ad). 2. Use the VI editor to edit the file: /etc/conf/sdevice.d/eiad. Change N to Y to enable the enhanced mode driver, (named eiad). 3. Use the VI editor to edit the file: /etc/conf/cf.d/mscsi. Change all occurrences of ad from ad to eid on the left most column of this file. 4. Rebuild the kernel and shutdown the system. 5. Use the EISA Configuration Utility to configure the AHA-174x from standard to enhanced mode. Save the changes and reboot to complete the process. Q. Where can I get drivers for the AHA-1740 for Netware? A. Current drivers for Netware are available on the BBS. When configured in standard mode use AHA1540.DSK for your version of Netware. When configured in enhanced mode use AHA1740.DSK. Q. What ASPI manager is used with the AHA1740? A. When configured in standard mode load ASPI4DOS.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS. When configured in the enhanced mode load ASPIEDOS.SYS. Updated 04/17/96